CHANDIGARH: Three miscreants kidnapped a businessman in his Mercedes SUV at gunpoint from Sector 9 and released him near Elante Mall after taking a ransom of Rs 3 lakh and fled with his SUV late tonight.

MUMBAI: Aamir Khan''s big release this year - "Thugs of Hindostan" - is nearing completion as the superstar says the last leg of shooting remains, which will be wrapped up in Rajasthan by the end of next month.

JALANDHAR: Despite a formal invitation sent to the media by the newly elected Mayor, Jagdish Raj Raja, to attend the crucial meeting of the Beas Canal Water Project (estimated to be worth Rs 1,000 crore in Jalandhar) today with a Netherlands-based consultant, Congress MLA Pargat Singh issued a gag order to the media to leave the conference hall even before the meeting could start.

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Rachna Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, February 21

Despite a formal invitation sent to the media by the newly elected Mayor, Jagdish Raj Raja, to attend the crucial meeting of the Beas Canal Water Project (estimated to be worth Rs 1,000 crore in Jalandhar) today with a Netherlands-based consultant, Congress MLA Pargat Singh issued a gag order to the media to leave the conference hall even before the meeting could start.

Stunned over the ‘loutish’ behaviour of the former captain of the Indian hockey team in front of foreign delegates, mediapersons lodged a protest and apprised him that he could not issue any such order against the invitation extended by the Mayor himself.

To this, the MLA sat quietly but again after a few minutes, asked mediapersons to leave the hall. Perturbed, the mediapersons slammed him for keeping a crucial public interest under wraps from the public and left the meeting hall.

The Municipal Corporation, Jalandhar, today kickstarted the surface water project in the city to provide fresh water from the Beas. The project is expected to decrease the dependency of people on the groundwater.

The DPR will be prepared in seven months and consultants will check the feasibility of the project and also find out a convenient route for bringing the Beas water to the city.

After the survey, the consultants will identify whether Miani or Dhilwan will be feasible to draw water from the Beas.

A 15-member team would team arrive in the city soon which will also include hydrologist from Netherlands and two water treatment experts from Vietnam.

In the following weeks, the consultants will hold meetings with various government departments, including forest, railways, sewerage, irrigation and also the Shah Consultants who have been outsourced by MC for AMRUT.

Mayor remains silent

Despite extending a formal invitation to the media to attend the conference, Mayor Jagdish Raj Raja overshadowed by the three MLAs preferred to remain silent over the uncouth action of Pargat Singh. While the other Congress MLAs Rajinder Beri and Bawa Henry did not intervene, Raja too could not gather courage to apprise the furious MLA that the media was in fact invited by him.

MC employees hold protest

Posing huge embarrassment for the Mayor and the Congress MLAs in front of the foreign delegates, over 200 employees of the MC office thronged the corridor outside the conference hall and raised slogans against the Congress-led state government and the Mayor. The employees, the majority of whom are Class IV employees, slammed senior officials for withholding their monthly salary despite the passing of twenty days.

While making a mockery of officials, Punjab Sanitation Workers Union president Chandan Grewal said while the officials were discussing a project worth Rs 1,000 crore in Jalandhar, they could not release a meagre Rs 15 crore as salary to the MC staff.

“We do not have money to buy milk for our children and feed our families,” said Grewal.

He added that it does not matter which party forms the government, the future of the employees always remain bleak.

Pargat, Bawa enter tussle with staff

It seemed like a bummer day for the Congress MLAs as they entered into yet another tussle with the MC staff this time. Perturbed over the humiliation faced in front of the foreign delegates and also a team that came from Delhi to assess the projects to be carried under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme, the Congress MLAs came out of the conference hall but were confronted by hundreds of employees who demanded the release of their monthly salary. The tussle grew further after a worker approached Pargat and asked him to intervene. To this, Pargat and other MLAs asked the employees to approach the Mayor but the employees said they will not allow them to leave the premises till they gave assurance to provide.

Another Congress MLA Bawa Henry too asked the employees to leave the office immediately. Slamming the MLAs for their egoistic attitude, the workers union has threatened to intensify the protest further if their salaries were not released in the next two days.

Pargat said the matter had already been discussed with Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal who had assured to release their salaries by Friday.

HOSHIARPUR: Terming the decision taken by the state government to recruit 306 doctors in Punjab Civil Medical Services (PCMS) at the basic salary for three years as unfortunate, the Senior Retired PCMS Association has termed it against the interest of doctors and general public.

JALANDHAR: Punjab Students Union (PSU) will hold a convention at the local Desh Bhagat Yadgaar Hall and a march in the district on February 28 in support of the right to autonomy of the Kashmiri people as well as against the labelling of struggle of the Kashmiris as terrorism.

PHAGWARA: On a complaint lodged by Monica, a resident of Palahai Gate locality, the police have registered a case under Sections 498-A and 406 of the IPC against her husband Harpreet Kumar, a resident of Rurrka Kalan village, near Goraya, on the charges of torturing her to bring Rs three lakh.

JALANDHAR: ‘Har Punjabi Di Maa Boli Punjabi’ (Punjabi is the mother tongue of every Punjabi) is the slogan that will reverberate through the corridors of every house, school and colleges tomorrow as it is the occasion to celebrate ‘Punjabi Maa Boli Divas’.

JALANDHAR: The maiden special camp to redress the grievances of non-resident Indians (NRIs) caused embarrassment to officials of the district administration when many NRIs told them to abolish the “sewa-paani” culture in government departments.

JALANDHAR: After the lodging of a first information report (FIR) against two boys of Cambridge International School, the Punjab State Commission for Protection of Child Rights will visit the city on February 22 to meet the victim Khushi and her parents.

JALANDHAR:With barely a week to go for the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) board exams, set to start on February 28, the Education Department in the district is still groping in the dark about the list of the centres and the staff deputed for duties at various centres.

JALANDHAR:Activists of the Shivsena Samajwadi held a protest outside the Municipal Corporation (MC) office here today against various “shady” hookah bars running in the district under the garb of restaurants.

JALANDHAR:Sooner or later the city is going to be a smart city and residents have high hopes that the city will also become a place where people would not find any inconvenience and everything would be placed nicely, no littered garbage, no sewerage problem, safe and secure city, proper roads and lighting, cleaner and greener surroundings and what not from the good list.

JALANDHAR:During a meeting of the Confederation of Punjab Unaided Institutions, Chairman Ashwani Sekhri, said for the last three years, no private college had received any amount under the Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme of the Central Government.

Perhaps most important of all, given Le Corbusier's overall intentions in Chandigarh, was the so-called 'Open Hand' hovering on a mast like a gigantic wind vane, although the irreverent observer cannot help thinking of a base-ball glove.